Limits
Tonic has four kinds of limit, and you pick by what the app does to you: it eats hours, you lose track of time in it, you pick it up without thinking, or you'd like to start gentle. Any of them can also run only during set hours, only at a saved place, or both at once.
A limit per visit. At ten minutes the lock comes back, even mid-scroll, and the next open starts a new visit.
Close it after 10 minutes each time →A limit on opens. Five visits a day at ten minutes each, or anywhere from 1 to 50 visits.
Lock it after five opens a day →A daily limit. Thirty minutes, or anything from 1 minute to 2 hours, and only time on screen counts.
Limit it to 30 minutes a day →A pause each time, with no time caps. It can stay the same every open or grow each time you come back.
Make it harder to open each time →Schedule
Weekdays 9 to 5, or overnight from 10 PM to 6 AM. Outside the hours the apps open with no lock screen.
Lock it during work hours →Location
Only at work, or anywhere but home. Tonic notices when you arrive and leave, within a few minutes.
Lock it only at work →Can I combine a schedule with a location?
It locks only when both are true, so this one has no say at 5:30, or on a Tuesday at home.
Instagram and TikTokA limit doesn't ask anything of you. An earn rule holds the app until you've read, walked or meditated, and the same app can have a limit after that: locked until the walk, then thirty minutes for the rest of the day. Every way to earn →
30 min a dayFour to start from: minutes a day, minutes per visit, opens per day, or a pause on every open. One limit can combine them, such as 5 visits a day at 10 minutes each.
Yes. Both sit on one limit and both have to be true, so it locks only during those hours at that place. A place rule needs Location set to Always with Precise Location on, and if Tonic can't check where you are, the rule runs everywhere.
No. Each app can have one set of rules, and Tonic points you to where it's already set up. One limit can hold several settings at once, and the same app can also sit behind something you earn first.
At your daily reset, 5:00 AM unless you move it. Minutes and visits come back, tap counts start over and any wait is cleared, including on a limit with set hours.
Yes. A limit can take a break for 15 minutes, an hour, until tomorrow, 3 days, a week or until a day you pick, and it comes back on its own. Nothing counts against you while it rests.
Free to start: limits, schedules and place rules are included in full, with two locked apps across everything you set up. Tonic Unlimited lifts the limits on apps and ways to earn, for $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month, with the first 7 days free.
Why an app locked again → · Breaks, skips and deleting a limit
Checked against the app on November 1, 2026.
Tonic is an independent companion and isn't affiliated with Apple, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube or X.
More: how Tonic works · what it costs · earn your apps first